Fayetteville recognized as volunteer community

The city of Fayetteville has been named a Volunteer Community of the Year by the Office of Governor Mike Beebe, the Department of Human Services Division on Volunteerism, and the Arkansas Municipal League.

This is the fourth year in a row that Fayetteville has won this award. In the past year, there were more than 30,000 Fayetteville volunteers who contributed more than 557,000 hours of volunteer community service.

“We are a giving community, and this award is in honor of the tens of thousands of Fayetteville volunteers who have done so much to help so many,” Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan said in a statement. “I thank the people of Fayetteville for all the time they dedicated to the community through their volunteer service. You all make Fayetteville a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family.”

More than 41% of Fayetteville residents volunteered in some capacity to benefit the Fayetteville community in 2012.

Volunteer work including cleaning streams and lakes, streamside protection, address hunger and homelessness; educate people of all ages and abilities, care for those in need with a variety of needs and variety of solutions, serve on many boards and commissions, organize and run many festivals in which profits go back into the community through non-profit entities, and ensure the health of our environment and economy for future generations.

“If there was a need that wasn't being addressed, volunteers have formed a group to start addressing it, like the Feed Fayetteville group and the Trail Trekkers. Whatever the stage of life you are in, whatever your need or situation, volunteers in Fayetteville are there,” noted the city’s statement.